A Slayer in Cardiff
by krynny su
Summary: Buffy tracks a possess-y demon-y alien-y...thing...to Cardiff. Buffy/Jack **Now complete!**
1. Week One

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy or Torchwood. You know who does. : )

Post season seven for Buffy. Season Two for Torchwood, right after Jack has come back.

This story really has no real point…I was just having a bit of a creative problem and needed to write something to get my muse flowing. I ended up liking the first chapter so here it is!:)

_

Buffy had come to Cardiff chasing some possess-y, demon-y, alien-y…thing.

It went off her radar as soon as she arrived, which was iway/i weird seeing as how it survived by possessing seemingly happy, normal individuals and forcing them to commit suicide, for some reason, and that just wasn't of the normal. In fact, it was completely noticeable.

Closing in on her seventh day there, Buffy finally got a lead, thanks to a handy dandy little police computer hackage ala Willow back in London. A lead not really wanted seeing as it involved a dead guy that didn't ihave/i to be dead, but hey, it was still a lead none the less and that made Buffy grateful. Not that the guy was dead of course.

She stood around the corner of an adjacent building, waiting for the police to vamoose so she could scope out the scene when a large black van type vehicle came screeching to a halt. The discontentment of the police was highly visible.

This must be Torchwood. The 'secret' agency that she had already had scoped out because, well, Buffy knew all about secret government organizations and really, after her last foray into that world, well, she'd really rather not do it again.

All, again, in thanks to Willow's wonderful way of hacking into every private record ever made.

Also, she noticed that they had gotten to the scene in remarkable amount of time. Next time, she would have to be faster so she could get there first. Though, at the same time, they had a car that could go seventy miles an hour and Buffy had…her legs. She was a fast runner, faster than human legs most definitely, but a cheetah she was not.

Four people stepped out of the vehicle, all in laughable dramatic fashion.

A young, shorter man with short brown-ish hair. A pretty Asian woman that reminded Buffy an awful lot of Willow for some reason. Another pretty woman with dark hair who definitely was part of the police force at one point. And the man that was definitely their leader. He wore a long, gray, wool-ish coat that swished when he walked.

Buffy recognized him—and his billow-y coat—immediately.

She grinned wide and watched as he immediately sent the police off while his team took over the scene.

Buffy glanced at the Torchwood team for a few more moments, using her awesome Slayer hearing to pick out bits of information that may or may not be important to her.

Basic details about the incident were what she was after, but all she heard was them arguing with the last remaining detective on duty.

"I guess it's time to make my entrance. I'm never going to learn anything while the police are still hanging around." Buffy smiled then frowned quickly. "Right. Alone. Save the witty puns for when there's people to hear."

She set her face into the most innocent look she could muster up, and boy was it _innocent_. It was the look she used on Giles when she had a completely ridiculous idea or when she wanted something particularly silly and frivolous. It was the look that had gotten her on this particular case.

She did a quick weapons check—Mr. Pointy on the inside of her coat pocket. The scythe was tucked in the back of her jeans and, quite honestly, it's blade ran up the most of her back. There was another stake in her left boot and a small (ish) sword in the other.

Check, check, check and check.

She pulled a small, plastic perfume bottle out of her coat pocket and stuck it up her sleeve.

She walked, slowly, down the alley, like she was just a silly lost tourist. An idiotic American that took a series of wrong turns. The detective glanced quickly at her then back at the Torchwood team before turning his full attention back on Buffy. He walked quickly towards her and stopped; his large frame directly in her eyesight of the body.

"Excuse me, Miss, but this is a crime scene. You can't be walking here." he said, briskly.

His accent wasn't Welsh nor was it British, not that she had been expecting it to be.

She'd spent enough time in Italy to know a full blooded Italian when she saw one.

She glanced past the detective, just a for a second, to see the Torchwood team staring at her intently.

Buffy turned her gaze back to the detective, who was staring at her, just as intently as Torchwood was. Before she had a chance to speak, or use the 'puppy dog eyes' that she was ever famous for, the detective stiffened his body—and gaze—up. He was a cop and Buffy knew that particular bit of body language well. In the few seconds that she had spent scoping out the Torchwood team, he had been studying her features.

Crap.

"Wait a tick. Short. Petite. Blonde. Caucasian. Green eyes. You wouldn't happen to be American now, would you?" Because it just so happens that there's a young girl on the watch list here. I would say she matches your description perfectly. Caused some trouble a few nights back, in back of a pub."

Buffy winced and hoped he didn't see it.

She had been scoping around, trying to get some info on her possess-y demon-y alien-y thing inside the bar. One of the local drunken idiots got a little hands-y so she decided to leave, for his own safety. She had just exited the pub when she spotted some vamps. Said drunken idiot had followed her outside, got himself in the way and she may or may not have broken some of his ribs trying to push him out of danger. She fled the scene when she heard sirens.

Buffy cleared her throat and made sure the innocent look was still as innocent as it could get, eyelash batting and all.

"I'm American, yes, but I just got here today. I was out for a walk and I must've gotten a little lost."

She was hoping that he was going to buy it, but she could tell by his still stiff body language that it was a no-go.

"That is….about some of the worst lying I've ever heard. I've been doing this a long time. I don't know how you did it or what you used, but that man's ribs were completely shattered."

"If he had just stayed out of the way, like I told him to, he would be fine. So he's got some broken bones. Big deal. Better than being vamp food and, you know, dead." Buffy mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Oh, um, uh, nothing. Nothing."

"Did you just admit to being at the scene? What were you doing there?"

Crap crap crap. Buffy's way with the cops had always been strained if not down right _awful_.

"Answer me."

Fine, he wanted to know? She would tell him. Even though Giles was so much better at it. Though, she probably shouldn't tell this part to Giles. She was sure that he would frown upon her telling their secret to random people without it warranting a reason.

Actually, she knew he did. Hopefully, by the time she was done, the detective wouldn't remember it.

"I was fighting off some vampires and broken ribs got in the way, which lead to him accidentally being tossed into a concrete wall. You see, tens of thousands of years ago, longer than that, actually, when man first appeared on Earth, they weren't the first ones. Demon kind had been here for thousands of years before that. The last of the demon kind mixed his blood with a human and so on and so forth, creating vampires. Demons were soon to follow. They just walked upon Earth, creating Hell in their wake. A group of stupid, idiotic men, presumably all ego-centric like you, harnessed the power and shoved it inside of a girl's body. That girl was their protector. They named her 'the Slayer'. One girl, in all the world. To fight off the demons and vampires and just general forces of darkness. One Slayer dies, another arises and her training begins all over again."

She finished her a little speech, thinking that she had actually possibly done maybe a little bit better than Giles. She chanced a glance at the Torchwood team. The three lackeys were staring, incredulously at her, while Billow-y coat had wide eyes. He knew the story, then.

"Bloody lunatics. That was a nice little story lady, but it doesn't cover up the fact that you assaulted a man." He took handcuffs out of his back pocket. "You're coming with me."

Buffy sighed. Yeah, right. But she would play along, for the detective's sake.

She was getting bored.

The Slayer had been bored for a while now and was itching for a fight.

"Okaaaayyy. You caught me, Mister Copper. I am just a crazy American girl and I'm dangerous and need to be stopped." she said, barely resisting the urge to smile like an idiot and placing her arms straight out in front of her.

The detective noticed the little plastic bottle in her hand.

"What's that in your hand?" he asked, carefully.

She smiled and flipped the bottle out into the open. "This? Oh, nothing much. Just some perfume."

He started to move towards her again and she sprayed it directly into his face. He stopped in his tracks, standing silent and still. Buffy grabbed his badge out of his pocket, flipped it open and studied it for a moment.

"Okay, Detective…Febreze. Oh, wait, no. Fabrizio. Sorry 'bout that. I think it's safe to say that you never saw me tonight. You never heard my little Slayer speech. In fact, you're going to go back to your desk and take my description off your little list. You checked it out and it was all a big misunderstanding. As for the crime scene, you got here but everything was already being taken care of so you left. Got it?"

Detective Fabrizio nodded his compliance.

"Good. Now go."

Buffy turned and watched him walk out of the alley.

She turned back to find the Torchwood team a lot closer to her than they had been, and their guns, staring her in the face.

She sighed. "Really? Do we _have_ to do the gun thing?"

"Who are you?" asked the Welsh woman.

"We can talk all you want. _After_ you get your guns out of my face."

Not one of them budged.

"Who are you and what did you do to him?" Billow-y coat asked.

Buffy stared at the little miracle bottle of potion before sliding it back inside the safety of her coat pocket, right next to Mr. Pointy. She leaned against a wall, carefully as she was pretty sure a scythe in the back would hurt, and folded her arms.

"I told you. Talk-age happens when there's no guns in my face."

"You wouldn't begrudge my team a little protection, would you?"

"Would it make you feel better if I de-armed myself first?"

Buffy didn't wait for an answer. She pulled the stake and the baby sword out of her boots and let them clatter to the ground. She pulled the scythe out from the back of her jeans, but held onto it, tightly. She left Mr. Pointy secured inside of her coat pocket.

She didn't want to toss her favorite stake on the ground with the others but she also didn't want to toss the scythe down, either. She didn't have enough hands to hold both comfortably so she decided that they didn't need to know about Mr. Pointy.

"I'm officially de-armed. This doesn't go on the ground, though. It's extra special and severely powerful. And I don't want to get it dirty." she said, referencing the scythe.

Billow-y coat nodded and his teammates lowered their guns.

"Thanks. Guns freak me out. But I guess being fatally shot does that to a person."

"Who—"

"—am I and what did I do to him. I know, I know. It's a potion my best friend created in the lab. It stuns the person and puts them in a sort of…thrall. It lasts for about an hour, two at the most. It's safe. He'll fall asleep and wake up a bit foggy headed in the morning. Nothing a Tylenol won't be able to cure."

She turned her attention so it was fully on Billow-y coat.

"You. You knew my story."

"It rang a few bells, yeah."

"So then, you know who I am."

"You're the Slayer."

"Yep. Well, _a_ Slayer. Co-Head Slayer is my official title now, since Sunnydale. I help run the London division of the Slayer's Council; Faith runs Cleveland. Also, I was your 10 a.m. appointment yesterday morning. Sorry I never showed. Police on my back and all. Your Captain Jack Harkness, I presume?"

Jack stared at the small, blonde girl with wide eyes but he quickly let his expression settle down to a cat like grin.

"Buffy Summers?"

"The one and only. Well, I mean, unless you count the Buffy-Bot that one time. Oh, and the twenty seven doubles I have stationed around the world."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Buffy. You are legendary in your profession. Or so I've heard."

"Legendary-Smegendary. Who's your team?"

"That's Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato."

"_Doctor_ Owen Harper." Owen corrected.

Buffy didn't miss the mass team eye roll.

"Nice to meet you all." she said, walking past them, over to the body.

"Okay, time to get down to business." she added.

"It just looks like a normal suicide." Gwen said, coming to stand next to her.

Buffy smiled . "If it was normal neither you or I would be here."

"Why _are_ you here?" Jack asked. Not in a rude way. Merely curious.

"There's this thing that I've been tracking. It's lead me through pretty much the entire UK. Last seen in London, heading towards here."

"What kind of thing?" Gwen asked.

"Um….it's a possess-y demon-y alien-y…thing. I don't know the exact name for it. I'm not really research girl. I'm more….action-chase-crush-kill-destroy. Girl. No worries though. I've got a research team on it back in London."

"That answers absolutely nothing." Owen said.

"It's a demon-y alien-y thing that possesses people. I thought that was very informative." Jack answered back with a grin.

"Okay but why? Why does it possess people?" Toshiko asked.

"It survives by possession and destruction. It possesses a person, destroys their life and then when they are at their last breaking point, it forces them to commit suicide, thereby destroying the lives of their family and friends. It leaves it's host and goes M.I.A. for a bit then comes back around for some more. There doesn't seem to be any kind of logical pattern with the victims and there's about a thousand plus demons that survive off of possession. And those were just the books written in English." Buffy answered.

"Owen, bag up the body and get it ready for transport. I'll let Ianto know what's going on so your station will be ready." Jack ordered.

He pulled car keys out of his pocket and tossed them at Gwen.

"I'll be back later. Buffy, would you mind accompanying me for a drink?" His smile was pure charisma.

Buffy nodded. She put the scythe back in it's hiding place and retrieved the rest of her weapons from the ground, placing them back in their spots.

Jack held out his arm and Buffy took it.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Jack spoke.

"I wasn't aware that the Slayer's Council dealt with aliens."

"We don't. Pretty much foreign territory to us. That's why the meeting was scheduled."

They stopped in front of a pub and Jack held the door open for Buffy. They sat down in a secluded corner.

"What can I get you? It's on Torchwood." Jack asked, his smile still beaming.

"Just tea is fine. I don't really do the whole drinking thing anymore. It leads to cavemen, kitten poker and giant snake men. Not necessarily in that order."

"Okay, at some point you're going to _have_ to tell me all of those stories." Jack grinned as he walked over to order her beverage.

He came back a few moments later. He set Buffy's tea in front of her and took his seat across the table.

"So what else do you know about this possess-y demon-y alien-y thing?" he asked.

"Everything I already told you." Buffy said, lifting her tea up to take a sip.

"If you don't mind me asking—"

"I was at a pub down the street from where I'm staying, trying to scope out some info. A guy in the pub got a little hands-y so, for his personal safety, I decided to leave. As soon as I got outside, I saw some vamps. Hands-y followed me out of the pub and got himself in the way. I didn't mean to hurt him. It just happened." Buffy explained in full detail.

She noticed Jack leering at her.

"And I'll break yours too, if you keep looking at me like that. You may be immortal, but I'm almost positive that it would still hurt like a bitch, at least for a few days." she smiled.

All the amusement drained from Jack's face.

"How do you know that?"

Jack was mysterious and he liked it that way.

"I'm the original Slayer, Jack. Do you understand what that means? There's absolutely no way my Watcher would send me here, for your help, without digging up a little info first. Not only has he been my Watcher for the last ten years, he's been more or less like my father. He has a very good interest in my personal safety."

"What do you know?" he questioned, all the earlier amusement still lost.

"I know about your time with the Doctor, who says hello, by the way. Martha too. I know how you became immortal. Though, no, it's not really immortal, is it? You can die, sure. You just don't seem to stay dead. Pretty handy, if you ask me. I obviously know about Torchwood. Your little misguided time jump. Your war days. That you stole your name from a dead man….shall I go on?" Buffy asked.

"You know the Doctor? And Martha?"

"Sure do. How do you think I did my research? I don't do books. Pretty sure I've already said that."

"How?"

"Do I know them? Well, I'm afraid that's classified information, Captain. But suffice to say, he owed me a favor. And Martha and I are friends."

Jack nodded. "Well, at least you both have that whole no gun thing in common."

"And I've died a lot, like you. So that's one thing we have in common. Look, Jack, I realize that you're weary, but I'm not here to harm anyone, except that possess-y thing. I'm here for help. We're highly suspecting it might be alien since it was heading towards the Rift. Like I said, Slayer's Council doesn't do alien. Also, if I might add, it really was a wasted effort on your part putting the Retcon in my tea. My blood has already burned it almost all off."

The Captain's eyes went wide, again. "How—"

"Research, my dear Captain, research." She grabbed a pen and a napkin out of a container on the table and scribbled down her address, handing it over to Jack. "If you decided I'm trustworthy enough, here's where I'm set up. Thanks for the tea, even if you did try to poison me." she smiled.

Buffy got up and turned to leave when Jack called her name out. She turned back around.

"Do you always give out your address on the first date or am I just that lucky?" he winked.

Buffy didn't answer. She just smiled and flashed the scythe in her waistband.

"Rough. I like that." he grinned back.

Buffy shook her head and turned away, towards the door. She couldn't help the laugh that came out as she walked down the street, back home.


	2. Month Two

**A/N:** Just a short update for today! :) 

* * *

><p><strong>Month Two<strong>

Jack was a man with a lot of secrets.

_A lot._

Buffy was curious about the immortality stunt and she asked him about it constantly. His answer was always the same-'I don't know.'

Which was _so lame_.

How do you not know how you became immortal? When she had gotten her info from the Doctor, he swiftly avoided the question. Buffy let it go then because at the time she had bigger fish to fry. Martha was just as clueless seeing as how she had just barely met him herself. Together, they had figured it was probably some heartbreaking thing that happened and nobody wanted to bother bringing it up again.

Though, Buffy could hardly judge. Her chosen profession had made her the Queen of Secret Identities for the last eleven years.

Well, _mostly_ secret.

And the heartbreak scenario? Buffy sensed that they were definitely on the same level there. But she rarely let herself think of those times. She was happy now and her past was just that—the past.

However, it was two months now that she had been in Cardiff. Two months and she still didn't know hardly anything about Captain Jack Harkness.

Well, no. That's a lie. She knew something. Something extraordinary about him. Something that he didn't even know…yet.

But she couldn't tell him. It was his future and if he found out, it would lead to all around badness. Or so Martha had said. Buffy didn't doubt her.

On the possess-y demon-y alien-y front, things were (hopefully) starting to look up.

Not for the dead people or their families of course…but for the victims that would have been next.

They had been lead-less for the whole two months that Buffy had been in Cardiff…until now.

Torchwood had gotten the call. A strange suicide, much like the others. Jack called Buffy immediately and she was out the door before the call ended.

She was running to meet Jack and the team at the crime scene, a small apartment complex not too far from the Hub, when she noticed a certainly familiar sniveling little weasel trying to not get himself noticed.

He failed.

iMiserably./i

Buffy was one hundred percent positive that his appearance here was more than coincidence. As soon as he noticed her noticing him, he bolted. Buffy knew that she couldn't _not_ go after him! She had to. Right then and there. Or else he would disappear in that magical, cowardly way that he always managed.

Jack walked outside to greet Buffy and give her the low down, not that she probably couldn't have guessed.

Abnormal suicide by a woman that perpetually happy and loved. He'd expected that. What he hadn't expected, was to see Buffy go flying by him, in almost full Slayer speed.

He didn't even hesitate once before he ran after her. Chances were, the person (or thing) she was chasing was lurking around for a reason.

Jack pushed the button on his comm. to let the rest of the team know that he was in pursuit of Buffy who was in pursuit of…..something. He ordered them to stay put at the scene and assured that he would call if they needed backup. But judging by the anger and rage that was wafting around Buffy at the moment, he was pretty sure that no back up would be needed.

Somewhere in the back of Buffy's head, she was aware of Jack following her. She didn't have the time to bother with it though and she actually thought his gun might come in handy for once.

Her chase-ee turned abruptly down a side street. Buffy was running too fast and nearly missed him turning, causing him to gain a bit of a lead over her. She pushed her legs as fast as they could carry her, nearly cheetah like, and she soon caught up which was unfortunate for her runner. Even more unfortunate-the dead end that Buffy could clearly see coming up.

Thank you super Slayer vision!

Buffy grinned a bit and slowed her running. She made it to the dead end in a matter of seconds. Her racer stood staring at the wall—and his bad luck—while backing away. He back right into Buffy, who grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. Super extra unfortunate for him because that's when Jack caught up and his gun was drawn.

"Buffy? What's going on? Who is he?" Jack asked.

Buffy flipped the man around, forcing him to hit the wall, hard. She wrapped one hand around his throat and held him in place. She used her free hand to beckon Jack—and his gun—closer.

"Okay, scone-head. You're going to talk. Tell us why you were skulking around that particular crime scene."

"Slayer. How lovely to see you again. It's been too long. How's dear old Ripper? Head of the Council now, I see. Good for him."

"Ethan Rayne. Back in the day, Giles was into some of the darker magics with Ethan here. He moved on, Ethan hasn't. Let's see…there was the time where he turned everyone into their Halloween costumes. The time he tried to have me possessed by Eyghon, a demon that was hell bent on killing him and Giles. There was the whole 'Band Candy' incident-"

"—Ah, that wasn't me, technically. I was subtracted by Mr. Trick, if you recall—"

"Ethan, I swear to God if you interrupt me again, he will shoot you."

"Carry on then."

"The last time I saw him was when he turned Giles into a god damn _demon_…I didn't know...I nearly killed him."

"So he's bad news then." Jack summarized.

"And now he's lurking around this scene. Why this particular one, huh Ethan? This whole set up is starting to wreak of 'chaos'. Isn't that what you're always after?"

"Let me get this straight, darling. You're accusing me of perpetuating these people's suicides? That's daft. Completely daft."

"Funny thing. Buffy never mentioned what happened. Nor did she mention it happening to others." Jack stated, aiming his gun just a little bit higher.

Ethan's lips curved into an obvious frown of distaste over his little-yet monumental-slip up.

"Getting a little senile in your old age, Ethan?" Buffy quipped.

"Coincidence. It's all a coincidence. I read about the suicides in the papers, of course."

"Pffffft. There's two things I don't believe in. Leprechauns and coincidences. Start spilling."

Ethan's frown curved up into a smug smile.

"I'll not say a word."

"Have I mentioned that this is one of those 'talk-or-bleed' scenarios?"

"What? Are you going to have your handsome little soldier boy shoot me? Even as much as you hate me, Slayer, I still think that this would leave a rather bad taste in your mouth. iMurder./i"

Buffy sighed, knowing that Ethan was partially right.

She motioned for Jack to lower his gun.

"Buffy-are you sure?" Jack asked, skeptically.

"Yes. Trust me."

Jack wavered a minute then lowered his gun. Ethan's smug smile grew.

Buffy swung her free fist around and bashed Ethan in the head, knocking him out.

Jack grinned and burst out into laughter.

"That…that was absolutely _brilliant_."

"Told you to trust me. I can beat Ethan Rayne up till the cows come home…and then I can beat up the cows."

"You are so _weird_." Jack grinned. "C'mon. Let's het him back to the Hub before he wakes up."

"Oh, no worries. If he wakes up, I'll just take immense pleasure in knocking him back out." Buffy smiled, slinging Ethan over her shoulder.

"If you're looking for immense pleasure, all you need to do is invite me over, honey bunches."

Jack had the pure charisma smile on and Buffy laughed, loudly.

Jack's grin stretched, if that was even possible.

"I'll get you, eventually. Some day, you'll melt to my irresistible charm."

"You…you are _impossible_."

"And you loooove it!" Jack teased.

"C'mon, let's get moving. I'm getting a very distinct wiggins carrying something so disgusting." Buffy said, purposely ignoring Jack's quip. She walked on ahead, leaving Jack a few feet behind her.

He turned his head as he watched her walk off. Some would call it a leer, Jack would call it a normal look.

Suddenly, Buffy stopped.

"Jack, what did I tell you about the _leering_? It's creepy. You're going to be Jack Harkness-Captain of the Broken Ribs club!"

Jack laughed loudly, yet again. He jogged up to her and slapped her firmly on the bottom.

"And again, I say...you _love_ it!"


	3. Month Two Continued: Interrogations

**Interrogation One: Buffy and Jack**

Buffy's patience was thin.

Because of that, waiting wasn't very high on her list of extracurricular activities.

She leaned up against the cold, hard wall in one of the many lower levels of Torchwood's Hub. This particular one was full of cells that held various aliens that had been captured. Or so that's what Jack had told her.

So far, since she had been here, all Buffy had seen were weevils. And of course, today, in the very last cell, one Mister Ethan Rayne.

Buffy stared at Ethan, silently willing him to hurry and wake the hell up so she could commence with the beating-till-he-spilled-something.

She had no doubts that somehow Ethan was behind the whole thing. As soon as she had seen him lurking about, everything had fallen into place.  
>The whole setup reeked of Chaos. Buffy mulled through all the countless possibilities in her head, none of them pretty.<br>"Still no word from your captive?" Jack asked, walking up to Buffy, handing her a cup of Ianto's famous coffee.

She took a sip of the delicious beverage and shook her head.  
>"Jeez, it's been hours. How hard did you hit him?"<p>

"I may have accidentally taken some pent up rage out on him. But trust me, he totally deserves every bit of it."

Jack crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, next to Buffy.

"You know, you can take your pent up rage out on me anytime you want." he said, with a perfectly serious look etched across his face.

Buffy smiled broadly. "You know, the Doctor warned me about you." she said, in between sips of her coffee.

"And what exactly did he warn you about?"

"Your ginormous ego. The fact that you think you can get every man, woman and creature in your bed in a matter of minutes. That you would undoubtedly try to get in my pants. Things like that."

"The Doctor said that I would try to get in your pants?" Jack asked, skeptically.

Buffy laughed. "Well, he didn't phrase it like that. He said that you had a certain…charm and charisma about you. I just read between the lines."

"I'm positive that I know what your answer is going to be but I'm throwing caution to the wind and I'm going to ask anyway with the hope that you will begrudge me a little bit and answer. Even though I'm pretty sure you won't…"

"Is there a question in there somewhere?"

"How do you know the Doctor? And Martha?"

Buffy smiled but didn't say anything.

"You can trust me you know." he added.

Buffy nodded. "I know that. And okay, I'll tell you. But only you. Not here, though. Not now. And I want something in return."

"Several marvelously sweaty and passionate nights with me? Okay. Done."  
>Buffy let out a dry laugh. "You never quit, do you? No. I also want an answer. One that I know you have."<p>

Jack raised his eyebrow at the petite blonde. "I'm intrigued. Go on."

"I want you to tell me—"  
>"How I became immortal. I should've known. You seem awfully intrigued by this topic. One could only assume that you would be so curious for one reason and one reason only."<p>

"It certainly would be nice to not have to worry about death anymore."

"It's like you said…it's not technically immortality. It's the lack of staying dead. I can still die. "

"I know."

"It's not fun."

"I know that too."

"Forever is hard to live with. "

"I never said I wanted to live forever."

"No, but it was implied."

"All I said was that it would be nice to not have to worry about it. I never said 'I want to live forever.' I know that I won't. I'm a Slayer. Death…it's my gift."  
>"That's….bleak."<p>

"It's the truth. I'm surrounded by death. Loved ones have died. Some couldn't be helped, others were my fault. A handful of new Slayers here, a handful there. Ones that I thought were ready but they weren't. I hand out death to the monsters that I fight. I've died before and I'll die again."

"While that may be true, it doesn't mean that it's your gift. That's just morbid to think so."

"It's in all of us…the primal essence of the Slayer. I've talked with it before. She told me that death was my gift. It goes the same for every Slayer. It's just a fate that we can't escape."

"You've talked with a primal essence? Where? How….I don't even know how to phrase the proper question."

"It's this whole gourd-dance-guide thing…possibly something to do with the Hokey Pokey."

"You….really are _so_ weird." Jack laughed.

Buffy smiled. "Welcome to my life. Population: Freaks, monsters and morbid weirdness."

"Meh, being normal is overrated." Jack smiled back.

"I gave up on trying for a normal life a long time ago, Captain. I'll never be able to have a normal relationship with a normal person. I'll never be able to have normal children and live in a normal house in a normal town. I'll always be Buffy the Vampire Slayer before anything else. I _have_ to be. The world depends on it, just like it depends on you being Torchwood and just like the universe depends on the Doctor being…well, the Doctor. We're the champions, you know?"

"Hmm…champion. I like that." Jack grinned.

"You really haven't changed all that much, Slayer. Still babbling on about normalcy and loathing in your own self-pity."

Buffy and Jack turned their attentions towards the cell and the prisoner there in, who was now fully awake.

"Oh look, Ethan's awake. Means I can hit him some more." Buffy smiled, walking closer to the cell.

"Slayers. You're all the same. Nothing but violence."

"Right because worshipping the Lords of Chaos or whatever they are called is super healthy." Buffy retorted.

Ethan smiled smugly. "Just you wait and see, Slayer. Just you wait and see. You can't harm me whilst I'm in this…jail cell. And I just don't feel like talking."

Jack grinned at Buffy and pressed down on the comm. in his ear. "Ianto, could you prepare interrogation room number three please?"

**Interrogation Two: Ethan Rayne/Jack**

Jack and Buffy had managed to wrestle Ethan into the interrogation room without Buffy having to knock him out. He tried to run once but he stopped suddenly when he ran straight into the center of the Hub to find four guns staring him in the face. Ianto, Gwen, Tosh and Owen helped Buffy and Jack escort Mr. Rayne to their destination.

Jack stood in front of the door to the interrogation room, blocking its exit. He held his gun out for good measure. Buffy stood next to him, her arms folded across her chest and her face etched in seriousness.

"Okay Ethan, spill it. What is this thing possessing these people? What's it doing it for?" Buffy asked.  
>Silence.<p>

"Ethan, you know how hard I'm going to punch you, right?"

"Why should I say anything? It's not like you're going to just let me go once I tell you."

"You'll tell me because if you don't, I'm going to let Jack shoot you."

"Bluffing. You're bluffing. I know you better than you think, Slayer. As much as you despise me…as evil as I am, you still couldn't let him shoot me. That would be murder, remember?" Ethan smiled arrogantly.

Buffy smiled. "I never said anything about him killing you." She turned back towards Jack. "As much fun as it would be for me to sit here and beat the pulp out of him, I think I'm in a sharing mood. See if you can get him to talk."

She turned back to Ethan. "Don't you _ever_ presume to think you know what I would and would not do. Times have changed Ethan and I've changed right along with them."

Buffy backed away from the table and moved towards the door. Jack moved to let her out.

"Have fun." she winked as she closed the door shut behind her.

Jack pulled at the heavy wooden table that was in the middle of the room and shoved it in front of the door. He turned back to Ethan and grinned.

"You see, there are a few key differences between Buffy and I, the main one being that I'm not afraid to kill people when they deserve it nor am I against torture. I'm not a Slayer. I don't have all sorts of 'rules and regulations' to follow. Torchwood doesn't work like that. We're not a part of the government. We're above the government. We tell them what to do. Basically, if I kill you—accidental or on purpose—nobody would care. Oh sure, Buffy would probably be mad for a week or two but she'd forget about it in time. She'd probably even be a little bit grateful at some point because with you dead and gone, she wouldn't have to worry about your ridiculous little schemes anymore."

"You're only slightly intimidating, Soldier. Try harder." Ethan sneered.

Jack fixed his gun next to Ethan's head. He pushed the barrel into his temple.

"How's that for intimidating?"

"You—you won't do it." Ethan said.

Jack clicked the lever back and pushed the gun harder into the side of Ethan's head..

"You still thinking that I won't?"

"It's a Klukicor. The Klukicors are a particularly nasty type of Chaos demon. They survive off of possession, destruction and pure, unfiltered Chaos."

"How are you involved with it?"

"I stumbled upon it by accident, really. In one of my older spell books. "

"You called it up therefore you control it."

Ethan nodded.

"How do you kill it?"

"You can't kill it. It's shapeless. Formless. You can't kill something that doesn't have form."

"Okay, then how do you get rid of it?"

"It must be trapped back by the same magics it came from."

"And you can do that?"

"Yes."

"Good. Where's the book it came from?"

"Well, you see, that's the tough part. I don't have it."

"You don't have it."

"No."

"Okay, who does have it?"

"Nobody. I burned it. Part of the evil plan and all. Get rid of the evidence."

Suddenly, the door burst off the hinges. Buffy flew in, grabbed Ethan by the throat and slammed him into the wall.

"Listen to me, you oily little weasel. You called this thing up, you're going to put it back. I will **not** let it murder anymore innocent people just because you got bored and started playing with magic tricks."

"Darling, I'd love to help, really would, but the book is lost." Ethan choked out.

"You said it has to be put back by the same magics it came from, not the same book." Buffy growled.

Ethan was silent for a minute before nodding.

She let go of his neck. He fell to the floor and began gasping for air. Buffy didn't step away though. She grabbed him roughly by the arm and dragged him out of the room and back down to the cells, with Jack on her heels.

Once they were back down in the lower levels, Jack hit the button and the cell door slid open. Buffy threw Ethan into the cell and pressed the button, closing the door just as fast as it had been opened.

Buffy paced in front of the door for several minutes, trying to calm herself down.

"Okay, here's the deal Ethan. You're going to sit in this dank little cell, under constant supervision, until you come up with a way to put this thing back where it belongs. If you do that…if…The Slayer's Council and Torchwood will work with the government to get your impending charges down from the murders that this thing has committed."

"You're expecting me to take full blame for the suicides? You're daft Slayer, completely daft!"

"You raised it up. You controlled it to murder dozens and dozens of people all across the UK. It's your fault they are dead. Yeah, you're taking full blame for it."

"I'll play along and put it back in the magic book but I will not take the blame for it."

"You know what Ethan? You don't really have any bargaining chips right now. I'm already beyond pissed off and Jack's still holding his gun. I would get working on the magic if I were you because I swear to God, if one more person dies because of you, I will kill you myself. And no, I'm NOT bluffing."

With that, Buffy stormed off, back upstairs.

_

**Interrogation Three: Jack and Buffy**

Jack sat behind his desk, feet propped up, staring at the pretty blonde sitting across from him.

Pretty? No.

Beautiful, gorgeous, stunning was more like it.

"So, who goes first?" he asked, stretching his arms behind his head.

Buffy lifted her head up to stare at him. She had apparently been lost in her thoughts and his voice had startled her some.

"Huh?"

"I want to know about you, the Doctor and Martha. You want to know about my immortality. Who goes first?"

"Oh, right, um. Well, I guess I will since you asked first. I first met the Doctor after the Sycorax invasion a few Christmases ago, do you remember that? A few months later, I helped him out during the Battle of Canary Wharf. We lost so many new Slayers then. Some to the Daleks, some to the Cybermen. I presume you recall _'The Year That Never Was?'_"

Jack nodded. "Too well. Wait—how do you remember? Nobody was supposed to remember."

Buffy smiled. "Nobody except the few of us that were involved. When the Doctor sent Martha off, he sent her straight to the Council. I helped her spread the word about him. Traveling the world takes a long time, Jack. Martha is a good person and she's brilliant but she never would have made it without our interference. I think the Doctor knew that. Willow sent the message out to her fellow Covens who sent it on…so forth and so forth. Martha and I traveled around…all over this side of the country. We started here, in the UK, then headed off to Asia, Africa, Russia and India. Faith took care of the North and South American front. Dawn, Xander and Giles stayed back in Scotland, at the Council's main headquarters, to monitor everything.

"So you spent the better part of a year with Martha Jones. Explains the friendship. I assume the Doctor kept the Council's role in this silent as sort of a…back up plan. Makes sense. The Slayer's Council is based in Scotland? So why are you personally based in London?"

Buffy took a deep breath. "The Toclafane took out a lot of our Slayers. A lot. When the year rewound and they all…came back…I couldn't bear it. I couldn't deal with seeing them, knowing that they died while I was gone. That they died protecting my family."

Jack nodded, satisfied with her answer. "So that's why the Doctor owed you."

Buffy smiled. "That's only one of the many reasons the Doctor owes me. I have a feeling I'll be calling favors into him for quite some time."

Jack swung his legs off his desk and sat forward.

"Did you ever meet Rose Tyler?" he asked.

Buffy nodded. "Yes. A couple times, here and there."

"It was her. She's the one that made me…non-mortal. There was a war…with the Daleks. The old Doctor, the one before this one. The last mortal thought I remember is facing three Daleks. Death by extermination. And then I woke up. Rose, she opened up the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the Time Vortex itself. She couldn't control it. She brought me back forever."**

"Did you realize it right away or…?"

"1892. Earth. I got into a fight on Ellis Island. Got shot through the heart. And then woke up. In the end, I got the message. I'm the man who can never die."**

Buffy nodded, the remembrance of the times she had come back fresh in her mind.

"You said you've died and come back so I'm sure you know how it's not the best feeling in the world. The blackness. The…the absolute nothingness. And then the surge of life that just pops back through your entire being."

"Actually, it wasn't like that at all. For me. The first time, I was only gone for a minute, maybe two. It was more like I was just unconscious then. But when I came back, I was full of strength. The second time was an alternate reality so that just doesn't really count. Mostly because I don't really remember it."

"Jesus, how many times have you died?"

Buffy smiled, sadly. "Four. You?"

"Oh, I'd say…at least…once every other week." he smiled.

Buffy nodded and stayed silent, lost in her thoughts.

"Number three? I mean, unless you don't want to talk about it."

"There was this Hell Goddess that was hell bent, no pun intended, on getting back to her dimension, using my sister's blood. In the end, I figured it all out. It didn't have to be Dawn because Dawn is made from me—literally. So I jumped. But it wasn't…black. I don't—I mean, I can't remember it too well but it was definitely more than nothingness. It was warm. And inviting. And…I knew that I was loved and I felt the love I had for my family and my friends. Willow and the gang brought me back after…I mean I was gone for a good three or four months. It was…extremely difficult for a long time. But we all healed in the end."

"I'm scared to ask about number four."

Buffy smiled. "It's not that heroic or brave or righteous. I got shot. Willow was kind of in the middle of an Evil-fest. She found Xander and I at the hospital and pulled the bullet out of my chest with her insane magic powers."

"Your deaths are _so_ much cooler than mine."

Buffy laughed. "I didn't know we were comparing."

Jack smiled, his charisma shining brightly, and stood up. "There's no comparison to you, darling. Should we go check on your prisoner?"

_

"You better have some mojo brewing for me, scone-head." Buffy said, walking up to Ethan's cell.

Jack waved Owen and Gwen off their post.

"This is a very complicated procedure, Slayer. I have to get it just right."

"Presumably so. I don't know a lot about magic, but I do know that it's not pretty when it goes wrong." Jack said.

"Precisely." Ethan agreed. "I could do better work if you would let me out…I'm sure you must have a lab or something here. I need ingredients."

Buffy raised her eyebrow. "What kind of ingredients?"

"Oh…just some stuff to attract the Klukicor so I can trap it."

Buffy laughed. "Right. Mark of Eyghon. I'm so not falling for that again."

Ethan frowned. "I'm hurt that you would think I would stoop to that level, Slayer."

"Ethan, I know you far too well. You would stoop to that level. You _have_ stooped to that level!"

"Fine. Have it your way. For your sake, I just hope the spell works."

"Play that game all you want, I'm not falling for it."

Ethan glared at Buffy but quickly went back to work.

After a few hours, he declared he was done.

"Let me see." Buffy said, reaching to unlock the cell door.

Jack jumped in front her though and put his hand over the button.

"Wait." He pushed his comm. in. "Owen, I need you and Gwen down in the cells, please."

A few minutes later, Owen and Gwen sauntered in. Jack nodded and they drew their guns.

Buffy grinned at Jack. "Back up. Good thinking."

Jack drew his gun and nodded for Buffy to open the door.

Ethan took stock of the guns in his face and decidedly just handed the parchment over to Buffy.

She grabbed the parchment from him and slammed the cell door shut, almost catching Ethan in the face.

"What—Slayer, I thought we had a deal!"

"We have a deal after the Cuckoo demon makes it back home. Jack, can Tosh forward these over to Willow in London? I want to make sure they are absolutely correct."

Jack nodded and waved Gwen forward, who ran the parchment back up to Tosh.

She reappeared about twenty minutes later with no parchment but what appeared to be a fresh printout.

"Turns out what he wrote down was rubbish. There was nothing to it. The witch sent the right bit. Said it should work. But you have to trap it in something unbreakable. She suggested metal."

Buffy spun around to face Ethan and grinned, widely. "Ohhhh you are **SO** in for the pummeling of a lifetime."

**Two Days Later**

Jack and Buffy were sitting on a bench, outside of the Hub. Giles had arrived the day before, taking Ethan and the metal jar 'o' Klukicor back to Scotland with him. Buffy couldn't help but grin at the thought of, well, whatever Giles had planned for Ethan.

She was sure that it included lots of pummeling and that made Buffy one happy Slayer.

With her job in Cardiff now done, Buffy had no choice but to head back to her life in London as the Co-Head Slayer.

"You're positive you have to go?" Jack asked.

Buffy smiled. "Yeah, I do have a job and a life to get back to."

"You're sure that I can't tempt you into the job offer?"

"I appreciate it, but I know all of Torchwood's rules and I'm positive that I don't fit the requirements. Plus, I don't necessarily care for that whole thing where you have to keep my body if I die. That's just…weird."

"Rubbish. You're gorgeous and lethal. You fit the requirements perfectly." Jack grinned. "You're going to be missed around here." he added, seriously.

"It's not like I'm leaving forever!" Buffy laughed. "Anytime you need help, call me. I can be here in a flash."

Jack nodded. "Admit it. You're going to get all the way back to London and you're going to walk into the Council office tomorrow morning and there's not going to be a single cat call or leer or sexual innuendo sent your way. And you're going to be lost. Completely lost. And you're going to miss me _so_ much."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Oh Jack."

A sudden whirring…whooshing noise had Jack sitting up straight and forgetting the witty pun he had waiting.

Buffy grinned, standing up. "I think my ride is here."

"Wait. You.. that's…your ride?"

The double doors burst open and out walked the Doctor, wearing his ever familiar navy blue suit and red sneakers.

"Buffy!" he called, stretching out his arms.

He walked over and grasped her in a firm hug.

"It's good to see you in a non-end-of-the-world capacity." Buffy greeted, hugging him back.

The Doctor ignored her and looked over to Jack and then back to Buffy.

"Did he behave himself?"

Jack looked up at Buffy.

"Not remotely." Buffy smiled back.

The Doctor sighed. "Oh, not you too!"

"Hey! I never said I gave in."

The Doctor beamed. "Oh good for you! I had faith in you. I did. Really did."

"Yet." Jack grinned. "You haven't given in yet."

"Oi! Doctor! We're late you know! Hurry it up, would you?" shouted a red headed woman from the doors.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and turned back towards the TARDIS.

"Come along, Buffy. I think Donna'll have our heads if we stall around here any longer. It was nice to see you again, Jack."

Jack stood. "You too, Doctor."

"Doctor, you can go on ahead. I'll be there in just minute, I promise."

The Doctor looked between Buffy and Jack before turning back to the TARDIS and shaking his head.

"The help call works both ways, sweetheart. If you need anything and I mean it…anything. Just call. Especially if it involves you and me. Naked. In a hot tub."

Buffy smirked and pulled Jack into a tight hug.

Jack hugged her back, snugly. He started to let his hands roam down her back but was quickly stopped by a sharp pain in his side. He felt and heard several distinct cracks before he yelled in pain.

"What did I tell you Jack? Captain of the Broken Ribs!" Buffy yelled over her shoulder as she ran off to the waiting TARDIS.

* * *

><p><strong>** The noted quotes were taken from the Doctor Who episode 'Utopia' in series three. I do not own them...blah blah blah. You know the drill! :)<strong>


	4. Year One: Goodbyes and New Beginnings

**A/N:**

This last bit is done in three parts. Three different perspectives. You probably could have figured that, but I just thought that I would throw it out there! It's going a little darker than the previous chapters. I didn't really plan it that way. It's just how it turned out.

This chapter is set eight months after iChildren of the Earth/i and a full year after our story has begun. I haven't seen iChildren of the Earth/i yet (I'm going off of the least amount of Wikipedia info I can) so forgive me if anything in Jack's section is wrong! :)

I would like to thank everyone for reading and especially reviewing! It makes me stupid-giddy-creepy happy. :) Especially for a piece that was supposed to have no point to it! Okay, enough of my babble. On with the show! 3

**One**

The Doctor leaned against the cold metal railing, high above the crowded dance floor below.

He wasn't there for fun, though, if he was truly looking for fun, he wouldn't be in a dank, crowded place that was filled with inebriated, sweaty bodies and vociferous music in the middle of London.  
>He was on a mission. A farewell tour, of sorts.<p>

No. It was definitely his farewell tour.

The events that had just taken place with the other Time Lords and the Master were still fresh in his mind—too fresh, really. And, of all the ways to have to go! Four knocks indeed.

Of course, he wasn't really 'dying' so to say. He wouldn't be lost forever, like the humans when they die.

He would regenerate and resume his timey wimey space adventures with, probably, a new companion.

But it wouldn't be him. It wouldn't be this body. This body that he had had for so long and had gotten so used to.

The body that he had come to take for granted.

He sighed heavily as he stared down, surveying the crowd. After about ten minutes, he spotted the man he had come to find. He lifted himself from his spot against the railing and made his way down to the floor. He walked up to the other end of the long bar.

"Gotta pen I can borrow, mate?" he asked the bartender.

The bartender obliged and the Doctor pulled a napkin out of the holder and scribbled a note on it then folded it in half.

"Can you do me a favor? Can you give this to the man down at that end? The man in the gray military coat?"

"Yeah. Sure." the bartender smirked.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

He put his hands in his coat pockets and waited.

He watched as the bartender got Jack's attention out of his whiskey glass. He watched the perplexed expression grow, amongst curiosity, across Jack's face. He watched as Jack carefully pulled the napkin open. He watched as Jack read it, which, really, shouldn't have taken as long as it did, seeing how it was only sixteen words. He watched as Jack called the bartender back over and asked him who the note was from. He watched as the bartender pointed at him. He watched as Jack followed the bartender's hand. He watched as Jack's gaze fell on him.

He gave a small, sad smile and a little wave. It was the last time he would ever see Captain Jack Harkness.

Okay. Well, no. Not the last time ever. But the last time in this body and well, no, it kind of did feel like the last time ever.

He watched the understanding dawn over Jack's face. The Doctor nodded. Jack smiled, even sadder and threw up a salute.

The Doctor smiled, a real smile this time. He pointed up and flashed his hand three times. Jack nodded his understanding and bowed his head, in respect.

The Doctor turned and walked away, towards his next, and last, farewell. The girl that just happened to be sitting on the rooftop.

* * *

><p><strong><span>Two<span>**

Buffy had been sitting on the rooftop since the sun had set. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that she was cold and that she should probably head home so that Dawn wouldn't worry but she couldn't make herself leave her spot.

She had to get away.

From everything and everyone.

She needed space to clear her thoughts and just…think.

She was so sick of the sympathy. Acting as if someone had died.

Well, okay. Technically, someone had. A few someones.

No Slayers this time, thankfully. They managed to escape with only a few injuries there. Just the baddies, like usual.

Except, this time, the leader of the baddies turned out to be her boyfriend of the last year. The one she thought she could trust. The one that she trusted enough to let him have her security codes for the London base of the Council office. The one that used those codes and almost had the building blown apart in an effort to eradicate the Slayer line—again.

Nobody blamed Buffy, well, almost nobody. Kennedy did but Kennedy blamed her for everything that went wrong ever so that never really counted.

How was she to know that her boyfriend wasn't on the side of good? How was she to know that he was only using her to get into the inner bases of the Council? How was she to know he was the leader of a group that was hired by a powerful sect of vampires to kill all the Slayers?

He never registered anything bad on her Slayer chart. She never once felt anything odd or off about him. He never acted weird. Always home at a respectable hour. Always understanding. Always….wonderful.

The only people to understand that were the closest ones to her. Dawnie and Willow. Giles to a degree understood, but naturally took the fatherly role of 'I'm not mad—just disappointed', which hurt so much worse. Xander started to flip out but Dawn kicked him in the shins and he shut up immediately.

It had been three months since and they were still looking at Buffy like….like she was a little girl that lost her puppy. Not a twenty-eight year old woman that just murdered her boyfriend, with his own gun, because it was the only choice. Because it's what saved her family and her girls and probably at least half of London.

Then there was that other thing.

At one very climatic moment during the fight, she had weakened. Not physically but emotionally. She was thrown off a very large cliff.

And she didn't die.

Several Slayers, Willow and Dawn had witnessed it.

And now Buffy knew for certain what she had suspected ever since Dark Willow had restarted her heart after Warren had shot her.

Well, no. Not since then. Since that Turok-Han had stuck it's sword clean through her during the battle with the First.

She had thought it to be adrenaline mixed with Slayer healing but somewhere, in the back of her head, she knew better.

And now so did everybody else.

All that contained in Buffy's small flat, where Dawn and everyone had insisted on staying, to make sure she was okay. Hence the need for Buffy to get away.

"Bit cold up here, isn't it?"

Buffy wiped her eyes and but didn't turn around at the sound of his familiar voice.

"Yeah, a little I guess."

He walked over and sat down next to her.

"Are you crying?"

She turned to face him, prepared to deliver a defensive, moody retort, but she stopped short, noticing the sad look on his face.

"Yeah. Rough few months at the office."

"So I heard. Boom."

"No boom. Almost boom. Small boom."

"Bit of the caveman coming back through, eh?" the Doctor smirked, referencing one of the stories Buffy had entertained him and Donna with so long ago.

To her surprise, Buffy managed a small smile. "Maybe. Why are you here? I doubt it's to gloat about my stellar love life almost wiping out half of London."

"While that would be fun, no, it's not why I'm here. "

" 'Splainy then."

The Doctor was silent for a few long, drawn out minutes.

"I'm…..on a farewell tour of sorts. The next time you see me, I'm not going to have this body anymore."

"You're regenerating." Buffy gasped.

He nodded. " 'Fraid so. I think I'm going to miss this body the most." he said, getting a bit teary eyed himself.

Buffy reached over and pulled him into a warm hug.

"I can be with you, if you want. When you get all regenerate-y." she whispered.

He smiled. "Such compassion from the heart of a killer. That is why I adore you, Buffy Summers. You endlessly surprise me."

"You've changed my life, you know. Kinda wish I knew you when I was back in Sunnydale."

The Doctor smiled and pulled out of Buffy's grip. "Sunnydale, California. Been there, done that, no thanks. Too many monsters for me."

"When did you ever come to Sunnydale?"

"Before you arrived and saved the day." he smiled.

He stood and walked towards the TARDIS, that was hiding beautifully in the shadows. He opened her doors and leaned against the frame.

"When does the regeneration get…well, you know what I'm asking."

"Soon. But you won't be there to witness it."

"What? But I said I would—"

"This is _my_ farewell tour, not yours thank you very much. You're my last stop and my last mission in this body. I've been traveling around, visiting the people and the memories that have meant the most to me in this form. One particular memory involved two people on my list so I thought two birds, one stone. As I watched the memory unfold, from afar of course, can't interfere with myself, I had a brilliant idea. A brilliant, wonderful, marvelous idea. The two people that have experienced more heartbreak and tragedy than one could bare to imagine. The two people, in the entire universe, that deserve endless amounts of happiness. The two people who should never have left each other's lives."

"And this is something to do with me?"

The Doctor smiled. "You have an appointment, Buffy Summers. And it should be walking through that door in a little less than five minutes. Someone just like you. Someone that is going to understand the blackness. Someone who will be there for you when you need it. Someone to help. I wouldn't miss it, if I were you. It has potential to be beyond amazing."

Buffy smiled a smile that was equal parts sorrow and happiness. "Take care of yourself, Doctor. And you better come back and visit. Preferably, when you're not about to get all glow-y. Or end-of-the-world-y. Oh and no Daleks. No planets in the sky. Just a normal, social call? Please?"

"You and I have a date real soon, Miss Summers. I promise." he smiled.

The TARDIS doors shut and with that, the Doctor was gone.

* * *

><p><strong>Three<strong>

Jack twisted the napkin in his hands. He downed his shot of whiskey. Twisted the napkin some more. Ordered another shot of whiskey. Downed that one. Read the note again.

_Roof. Ten minutes. Wait-fifteen. No. Yes. Fifteen. Roof. Fifteen minutes. Someone like you is waiting._

Jack had gotten the Doctor's message loud and clear. He was regenerating. He would never see the Doctor in that form again. But this…this message. This message, he didn't understand.

What was on the rooftop? Why did he have to wait fifteen minutes? Someone like him?

With a final glance at his watch, he muttered 'screw it' and stepped away from the bar.

* * *

><p>He pushed open the door to the rooftop, not sure what to expect but definitely <em>not<em> expecting to see the familiar back of one extremely familiar petite blonde.

"Buffy?" he choked out.

She whipped around at the sound of his voice.

"Jack?"

He sauntered forward, only slightly drunk, letting the door slam behind him.

"It's been awhile." Jack said, awkwardly, after several moments.

The last time he had seen her had been the last time the Daleks attempted invasion. She had been there, right by the Doctor's side. They hadn't been able to catch up much then due to the impending doom via the Daleks.

"What are you doing here? In London, I mean. Why aren't you in Cardiff, near the Rift?"

Jack didn't answer right away. He didn't know what to say or how to phrase it.

"Everyone's gone now. Everyone but Gwen and myself."

Buffy's eyes widened with shock.

"What? Everyone? H-how?"

"Um…well, uh..it's a really long story that I just don't feel like re-hatching at the moment." Jack said as he sat on the ground.

Buffy nodded. "I know how you feel." she said, sitting next to him. He shrugged out of his coat and draped it around her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and she leaned her head down on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I figured you'd understand." Jack said.

"My last boyfriend seemed like he was such an amazing person but he really was leading a double life. He was the leader of some idiotic group that was hired by a sect of vampires known as the Brotherhood of the Blood Guard. He spent nearly a year gaining my trust at every turn and infiltrating the Council."

"Why?"

"The Brotherhood was trying to finish what the First started so long ago now. Erasing the Slayer line. Luckily, Willow got the tip off thanks to one of her Coven friends who is a Seer. We stopped them before they could wipe us out."

"And where's your boyfriend now?" Jack asked, curiously.

"Dead. We stopped them. Permanently."

"You killed them? That's taking a page straight out of Torchwood."

"I didn't have a choice. It was one of those super fun 'it's either them or half the population' choices."

Jack sighed heavily. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I came here to get away from all the sympathetic looks. It's been a rough few months. I just wanted…"

"…Peace. Silence."

Buffy shifted, picking her head up from Jack's shoulder and turning to look at him.

"How did you know I was up here?"

"I didn't….you're probably not going to believe it, well no, actually, you're probably about the only person who would-"

"The Doctor." Buffy smiled.

Jack suddenly understood. "The Doctor."

"He told me he was on a mission. What did he tell you?"

Jack handed her the crumpled napkin.

"Roof. Ten minutes. Wait-fifteen. No. Yes. Fifteen. Roof. Fifteen minutes. Someone like you is waiting." she read.

"What did he mean 'someone like you'?"

Buffy sighed. "He told me the same. Someone like me. Someone that would understand the blackness. Someone that will be here for me when I need it and someone to help me through the times of supreme badness."

"I have no idea what you just said."

Buffy laughed, a real laugh, for the first time in months.

"That's because you've had one too many drinks this evening, Captain Harkness."

"What did he mean?" Jack asked, seriously.

"Do you remember when I told you about Evil Willow taking the bullet out of my heart in the hospital? After I got shot?"

Jack nodded.

"Her magic was a little too binding and I was a little too in between life and death at that point."

"Oh." Jack said with definite understanding in his eyes. "Someone like me….someone that can't die."

"I kind of had fleeting suspicions here and there but never really thought anything of it, seriously. I think the Doctor knew from the very beginning. I mean, he had to of, right?"

"How did you find out for sure?"

"Got tossed off a cliff. Everything broken and shattered. Woke up."

"Does…I mean, do your—"

"They know now. There was a handful of Slayers present along with Willow and Dawnie."

"I see why you're sitting on a rooftop in the freezing night then."

"You're right, you know. It's blackness. Utter blackness. Not really a fan."

"Wanna get off this roof? Go for a walk?"

"Should we use the door or would you prefer to jump off and just wait till we come back to life?"

Jack stared at Buffy and then laughed, loudly, for the first time in nearly eight months.

* * *

><p>They walked down the street, arm in arm, sometimes making conversation, sometimes not.<p>

Buffy held a large, steaming cup of coffee in her hands. Jack was just content to hold onto Buffy.

This all just seemed…right. He would always hold Ianto in his heart but he also realized that now was his time to start healing. To start healing and move on. Buffy seemed to be in the same category.

"So, I'm guessing you're looking for a job then." Buffy said, after a few minutes of silent walking.

"I sent Gwen and Rhys underground for a bit, out of protection for their new little family. It's just me now."

"Gwen and Rhys had a baby? I'll have to send them something."

"Buffy…they're underground. You do know what that means, right?"

"I've got some high influence. I can make it happen. No one will even know." Buffy smiled.

"I am in need of a job."

Buffy stopped and walked up a small set of stairs.

"You start the day after tomorrow." she smiled.

"Day after tomorrow? Why not tomorrow?"

She grabbed his face and pulled him into a deep kiss.

They broke apart after a several minutes. Several very short minutes.

"Day after tomorrow because I now have a reason to kick everyone out of my flat." Buffy smiled, pointing to the door behind her.

Jack pulled Buffy back into his arms and grinned.

"I always knew you would give in!"


End file.
